Oregon House and Senate Pass Bill to Address Affordable Housing

If Governor Kate Brown signs House Bill 2001, which recently passed the House and Senate, it would eliminate local bans on duplexes in residential areas in all cities with at least 10,000 residents as well as two-, three- and four-unit homes and cottage clusters in areas where only single family detached houses are now allowed in cities of more than 25,000 and within the Portland metro area. The idea behind this is to increase what some call “middle housing” in residential neighborhoods.

Oregon legislators took a historic leap toward greener, fairer, less expensive cities Sunday by passing the first law of its kind in the United States or Canada: A state-level legalization of so-called “missing middle” housing.

More Affordable Housing

Many consider Oregon to have a shortage of housing and the lack of affordable housing in certain areas of the state to be a real crisis. The bill is designed to address that. Close to three million Oregon residents live in areas affected by the bill, and this could make a significant impact for developers, first-time homebuyers, and investors alike. According to Anderson:

Cities would retain the ability to regulate building size and design, giving them leeway to ensure that change will be gradual. Cities also have flexibility to incentivize projects that create new below-market homes. (Portland, which has been working on its own fourplex legalization for the last four years, is planning to do exactly that, using a sliding scale of size bonuses that lets buildings be slightly larger for each additional home they create, and another bonus if one or more of the homes is offered below market price.)

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